Question Q – “How in your setting do you encourage parents to share their child’s interests?” Answers A – These simple luggage tags can be placed on a child’s nursery bag and parents or practitioners can write quick notes or share interests or new milestones that have been reached. It’s
Painting with Ice cubes Ice cubes are a fun alternative surface to paint on! Offer ice cubes in a large builders tray with some ready mixed paint and some paintbrushes. The children will love watching the colours run and mix together as the ice cube melts. Follow our hashtag #AfternoonActivityTime
Recreating Stories Recreating stories is a great way to extend a child’s favourite book. The Three Little Pigs is a fun story to recreate using a builder’s tray. You can add bricks, straw and sticks to the tray and encourage the children to build the little pigs’ houses. Adding puppets
Question Q – “How do you cover staff holidays or sickness? Do you have cover staff, and are these cover staff given set hours?” Answers A – I’m bank staff for a nursery I get some hours asked in advance and then sometimes a really early phone call to see If
Large group sizes are causing problems in the early years Group sizes and setting sizes seem to getting larger and larger as the demand for childcare rises as more parents are making the decision to go back to work. Recent changes enforced by the government such as benefit reductions and
8 great Halloween activity ideas for the under 5’s Halloween is a fun time of the year for children and adults to enjoy, with many Early Years settings choosing to celebrate this time of year with crafts, cooking activities, dressing up and parties. Celebrating Halloween is often disputed in the
A nursery in Newmarket has been awarded platinum status for the way in which they manage their staff The Old School House Nursery has achieved the unthinkable and become the first nursery in the UK to be awarded platinum status from Investors in People (IIP), an internationally recognised accreditation. Investors in People
The importance of showing your early years team gratitude As part of the management and leadership team you are in a key position to influence the morale of the workforce and ensure your early years team is performing to their best. Sometimes the simplest gestures can make the biggest difference.
Should all early years settings have a minimalist environment? Early years settings are often environments full of colour, resources, loud sounds and music but is this really the most effective way to expect children learn and play? Many settings take a continuous provision approach and have a multitude of resources
Early years settings need to embrace loose parts outdoor play Outdoor play is always rising on the early year’s agenda with the benefits regularly being stated for children’s holistic development. Recently reported is the rise in forest schools groups within the community with many early years’ settings becoming their forest schools